News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

"Luhansk, Starobilsk, Alchevsk, Brianka, and Kadiivka are now under the control of the Third Army Corps' unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)," Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi said.

Alexander Lukashenko also downplayed the capabilities of Ukrainian troops stationed along the Belarusian border, describing them as "cannon fodder."

In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, Anna Belokur explains how mobilization actually works in Ukraine — and why the reality is far more complicated than viral videos often suggest.

Ukrainian forces hit the Saratov oil refinery, along with several other Russian oil industry facilities, overnight on May 31, the General Staff confirmed.

Russia launched 229 drones, 212 of which were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, according to the Air Force.

Russian forces launched more than 2,300 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 108 missiles over the past week, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The number includes 1,560 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

The latest measures come as the peninsula continues to experience fuel shortages stemming from a combination of Ukrainian strikes on supply routes as well as on oil infrastructure.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on May 30 that the United States will "find a way" to help Ukraine defend itself, days after President Volodymyr Zelensky sent an urgent letter to the White House warning about Ukraine's worsening shortage of air defense systems.

Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast has established a new ministry to protect against Ukrainian drone strikes following a series of attacks against the region.

"The version promoted by Russia does not withstand any verification of the facts," the Ukrainian military said in response to allegations from Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev.

The attack struck a training ground used by Russia's 64th Separate Motorized Rifle brigade, one of the units responsible for the massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha during the early days of the full-scale invasion.